Comments:
A beautiful well built house but created a MAJOR hardship on my family. The amount of issues/problems far exceeded anything we ever imagined.
We needed to close on a specific date or we would have lost the interest rate we were locked in (for 8 months) at. He was aware of this. He did not make any promises and indicated the house may not meet the deadline. He had no excuse. He acted as if I insulted him when we discussed withholding money at the closing until uncompleted work was satisfactory. He indicated, if this was the case, we wouldn?t close until I was completely satisfied with the house.
The week before we were to close, we asked for a walk thru. We pointed out Many, Many issues needing to be addressed. Everything was written down; a copy was not provided to us and we were not asked to sign anything.
The day before we were to close, we were notified the electrical inspection failed. Luckily, electrical contractor was able to identify and make the repair the morning we were to close. Unfortunately, the inspector was not available until the afternoon and closing was pushed back from 12pm to 6pm. It truly is a snowball effect; the people who bought our house had to make last minute adjustments as well.
No sooner than we moved in, the hot water heater did not work. After several attempts, over several weeks the problem was finally resolved.
Final grading was done in the fall. The weather was perfect for fall seeding. Unfortuanately, this was short lived; sewerage backed up into our basement. A broken pipe was uncovered. Digging created another problem; 5 slabs of concreate in our driveway were damaged\cracked from the digger.
Now that the major problems were resolved, we could focus our energy on the problems never resolved, but addressed during the walkthrough or had surfaced after we had moved in. We became the project manager and had to contact contractors to make our home functional:
?Kitchen trash can and a few kitchen shelves were missing
?Double oven cabinet damaged
Cabinet hardware knobs fell off; screws were too short
?3 way switch for coach lite did not work; porch lite activated when the 3 way coach lites were activated
?Outside receptacles did not work from dedicated on/off switch
?Sewerage backed up in the basement for the 2nd time; this time a low budget back flow preventor was the problem
Hot Water heater failed for the 3rd time at the 9 month mark. Shortly thereafter, the blower motor from this device elicited a high pitch whine (4th problem). Plumber made several attempts to resolve the noise; even replaced the hot water heater with the same make and model. The plumber switched out the hot water heater with another brand and our problem was finally over.
?Basement floor was jack hammered to extend clean out pipe. Pipe was several inches below concreate floor.
?Tile in laundry room were from different lots. Many had to be replaced.
?Phone lines were not punched down inside house (this was learned when Cincinnati Bell tried to activate phone); we were without phone service for several days.
?Central Vac system did not work properly and attachments were not in house.
?Garage door didn?t work properly.
?A\C Unit was placed outside our Master Bedroom; sleep was disrupted from loud compressor noise upon startup. HVAC contractor took way too long to resolve this problem. A/C Unit was finally moved after 4 months of constant phone calls.
?Design flaw; drain pipes from 2nd floor bathroom run thru hollow wall b/t master bed and bath. Sounds like Niagra Falls and never resolved.
?French door had brass screws with stainless hardware. Service door had brass hinges when rest of house was stainless hardware. Took 9 months before this was resolved.
?Caulking around windows look as if a two year old did it; very lumpy with many starts and stops. Just pathetic.
?Wrought iron railing has stain on it from when hand rail was stained; sloppy work and never touched up.
?Dry wall work was much to be desired.
They said what we are experiencing is normal for a new home. We disagree. The problems we had are more than anyone should experience.
Due to our project management due diligence, the contractors have resolved most of our problems. My wife and I have taken off work to meet people. Some of which showed up late or no showed. It has inconvenienced us tremendously. He has very poor communication and follow-up.
I would recommend having the house inspected (even if it is a new house) by an inspector of your choosing and a lawyer represented at closing (both mistakes on our part). Only close on a house if you are COMPLETELY satisfied and it?s just the way you want it.
